A current industry practice today for polishing or finishing an article (sometimes referred to in the industry as a “work piece”) involves using a metal lapping plate with abrasive slurry, such as diamond slurry, in a polishing process. One potential drawback of the use of slurry filled metal plates is that the surface of the plate eventually becomes saturated with the abrasive slurry and thus can no longer finish or polish the work-piece. When saturation occurs, a common practice for the users is to resurface, typically by grinding down, the metal lapping plate. This refinishing process is laborious, because the plates are heavy and cumbersome, time consuming, and generate waste containing metal shards in a liquid suspension. The grinding refinish step is also a destructive process because during each re-grind, a portion of the metal lapping plate is removed.
In another industry practice, a fixed abrasive material can be used to polish or finish a work piece. A fixed abrasive material typically includes an abrasive layer, an adhesive, a backing and optionally other compliant materials. It is very desirable to have the fixed abrasive remain substantially flat during use. Unevenness in the fixed abrasive translates into uneven polishing, a non-desirable outcome. A fixed abrasive typically has an abrasive mineral (such as diamond), a resin used to attach the mineral to a backing, and an adhesive to attach the abrasive mineral backing to a substrate. The adhesive is typically a pressure sensitive adhesive. These fixed abrasives can be used to polish alumina-titanium-carbon (AlTiC) rowbars. The polishing steps occur at pressures of about 10 to 20 pounds per square inch (psi) and up to as high as 60 psi. If there is unevenness, asperities, and/or waviness in the fixed abrasive, use of such a fixed abrasive will likely lead to crowning of the work piece. Crowning is undesirable rounding or rolled-off thereby of the work piece.